Waiting to be transformed

To follow her highly praised first novel, The Dream Life of Sukhanov—which tells the story of a Surrealist artist who, in an act of artistic self-betrayal, becomes a Soviet art functionary, only to find his world upended years later under glasnost—Olga Grushin set out to write a novel about a Russian émigré living in...

Book Clubs Column by Julie Hale

Grushin, who was born in Moscow, makes an impressive debut with this compelling tale of life in modern-day Russia. Anatoly Sukhanov is a talented avant-garde painter with a growing reputation when he marries Nina Malinin, the daughter of one of Russia's most famous artists. After their marriage, Sukhanov gives up his work and turns his hand to art criticism. Relinquishing his love of the...